NEW LEAVES IN WINTER

Corporate drama drives two executives to question their immediate futures in Johnston’s novel.

Dan Pierce has questions. First and foremost: Why has the advertising executive been summoned to the mansion of Joseph Starlinger, whose family owns gourmet grocery stores and for whom he has worked for almost a decade? Dan braces himself for the worst. Starlinger PR exec Joan Schneider has a similarly pessimistic outlook and propensity for overanalyzing and overthinking. She is rattled by a text she receives from her boss, Jeff Starlinger: “Need to see you at 6:00 tomorrow morning in the conference room. It’s important.” Things grow more fraught for her when the company lawyer, Trent Woodworth, calls her with some very bad news and asks her questions about the mysterious text. It transpires that Jeff is dead. What changes will be made at the business, and how will they effect Dan and Joan? In alternating, nonchronological chapters, the story unfolds from Dan’s and Joan’s perspectives as they try to process the players and the politics behind the machinations for control of the company. The author has a tendency to get lost in the narrative weeds as Dan and Joan fret over every move, but he wrings maximum angst from the workplace drama, including petty personality disputes, complex corporate maneuvering, and paranoid speculation (why is Trent insisting that Joan take the rest of the year off?). Not a satirical take like the film Office Space (it’s rather humorless), a surreal meditation like the TV series Severance, or a crackling dysfunctional corporate family drama like the premium cable drama Succession, this straightforward story may resonate with 9-to-5-ers who began to question their work-life balances during the pandemic lockdown or have fantasized about telling off an incompetent superior (“How in hell do you think you got your title and position,” Dan challenges Jeff Starlinger at one point. “Without the name Starlinger, you couldn’t be the assistant manager of a two-employee gift shop”).

A timely and relatable story about job insecurity.